Film Review: The Postcard Killings

Based on the 2010 novel of the same name by Liza Marklund and James Patterson, The Postcard Killings is a crime thriller that revolves around a NYPD detective, Jacob Kanon (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who is informed of the murder of his daughter and her husband while they were on their honeymoon in London. Distraught and eager to find out who is responsible, and whether the strange brutality of the crime makes it any way connected to a recent string of murders pushes Jacob to go to Europe and help with the investigation, whether the authorities there want him to or not.

If the basic setup seems like fairly standard stuff, that really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering the source material involved. While I can’t speak much about the works of Marklund, Patterson has made a name for himself in his long, distinguished career of putting out “airport novels,” which – if you’re unaware of the term – basically means “perfectly serviceable, but not mentally demanding, genre fiction that can keep you fairly engaged while you travel.” The connotation gives it a bit of a stink in the literary world, but it serves a purpose, and if it were so bad, it likely wouldn’t be as big a market as it is.

So, to declare the film adaptation of The Postcard Killings is an ideal plane movie might just be the best thing one can say about it. Writers, Andrew Stern and Ellen Brown Furman, and director, Danis Tanović, deliver a perfectly serviceable piece of genre filmmaking that is effortlessly compelling from moment to moment without being too demanding in terms of weighty themes or ideas. It delivers everything it promises, and while that doesn’t necessarily make it a masterpiece, or even an all that great of a movie, there is still a clear effort to make something interesting and thrilling, and it totally comes together.

What makes it all work is ultimately Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who has to carry a vast majority of the film all by himself. We don’t get to see him too often on the big screen, and it’s even rarer as a lead. However, he’s great in the film, easily elevating basic material into something more emotionally resonating. Unlike a character such as Liam Neeson’s in the Taken series, Jacob here is deeply human, and very vulnerable. His anger and frustration at the system is felt, and it’s grounded in a way that gets you to root for him fast. While certain scenes may feel like they were on the verge of going full revenge fantasy, the way the film pulls itself and Jacob as a character back to reality is effective in showing a more intimate angle at this kind of story.

Supporting players like Famke Janssen, Cush Jumbo, Naomi Battrick, and Ruairi O’Connor don’t get quite as much heft material to work with, but they do a fine job given their characters. I did appreciate Janssen getting more involved in the plot than the “wife of protagonist” typically gets in films like this. Tanović doesn’t draw too much attention to himself as a filmmaker here, keeping a fairly clean and slick production and keeping most overt stylistic touches to a minimum. Though, there is an odd exception to these brief moments where images will get blurry and jittery like something out of an early 2000s music video. Aside from that, he handles tension well, the violence isn’t gratuitous, even when it almost calls for it, and the pacing keeps things going without overstaying its welcome.

Like I said, The Postcard Killings delivers everything you’d want from a film like this. Sure, that largely means it’s a compelling enough thriller for the moment you watch it, but isn’t gonna last very long in your mind after you see it, but in a situation where you just need something super straightforward, adult themed, and reasonably well made, Danis Tanović brings the goods. The mystery is effectively told, the drama is easy to get sucked into, and the performances are strong and emotionally engaging enough to make even the most contrived moments work. If anything, seeing Jeffrey Dean Morgan in this just made me wish more movies had him in the lead, but I’ll take what I can get.